The tragic death of a five-day-old baby at Norfolk's largest hospital has sparked calls for extra checks to be carried out on newborns before they can go home.

Louie Laxton was less than a week old when he died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, just a few days after he was originally discharged after his birth.

An inquest into his death concluded on Wednesday 18 September, with area coroner Samantha Goward ruling his death to have been a result of natural causes. He died from a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

During the two-day hearing, his parents raised concerns that opportunities to diagnose his condition may have been missed, in particular after early oxygen saturation tests showed low levels.

However, the maternity care assistant who took the reading put this down to faulty equipment. When a different machine gave a normal level, only this reading was recorded.

The court heard that following the incident the equipment was tested and was found to be in working order.

Mrs Goward said she was unable to speculate on whether Louie's treatment would have run a different course if the initial reading had been recorded.

The hospital has made changes to a number of its procedures following its own investigations into Louie's treatment.

These included ensuring care is escalated whenever staff are unable to establish readings of vital signs, and improvements to the way staff keep written records of observations.

She said that investigations into Louie's death had been "hampered" due to paperwork not always having staff signatures, making it more difficult to trace which members of staff were involved in his care to receive their evidence.

Mrs Goward added that she would be writing to the British Association of Perinatal Medicine to highlight calls for additional oxygen saturation tests to be carried out on infants with heart murmurs, such as Louie, before they are discharged from hospital.

Family's reflection.

(Image: Newsquest)

Louie's parents, Matthew and Alicia Laxton, of Taverham, said following the inquest: "We accept Louie died of natural causes and are relieved Mrs Goward accepted our statement as fact with regards to the oxygen saturation levels taken in the hours after his birth.

"We are disappointed the coroner did not see fit to make a recommendation to the trust that a second set of observations be required prior to discharge for all newborn babies diagnosed with a heart murmur.

"We heard this is mandated at some hospital trusts, but not not at NNUH. 

"We hope to see this implemented and would encourage all parents with a newborn child diagnosed with a murmur to request this.

"We are happy to get confirmation that since Louie's death, the trust has implemented several changes in the process to address the failings in care admitted in their serious investigation report.

"While nothing will ever ease to pain of losing our son, we hope that the changes can prevent others suffering the same potentially avoidable loss in future."